


On The Internet, Nobody Knows You're a Piece of Shit

by glunkus



Series: youtube hell [1]
Category: Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, M/M, Youtuber AU, enjoy your fucking stay, i wrote this for my own personal enjoyment so welcome to my own hell, lmao arent you glad this doesnt have pewdiepie in it or something, self indulgent bullshit, some kind of hot mess lets be real here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-05-30 17:44:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6434185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glunkus/pseuds/glunkus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The idea of lonely weird kids becoming friends through the internet is endearing.<br/>Here, have a messy deviation from the highschool au.<br/>everyone has a youtube channel. they're popular.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On The Internet, Nobody Knows You're a Piece of Shit

**Author's Note:**

> let me preface this:  
> i know absolutely nothing about having a youtube channel lmfao.
> 
> normally i'd lie and say i'm ashamed of writing something like this, but fuck that. this was really fun, it made me really happy. nothing beats having fun. 
> 
> (end of piece notes talk about character likenesses)

The first thing Johnny does after getting a webcam at age fifteen is film himself talking about school. He talks about how all his classes are difficult and he's tired all the time and he just wishes he could kill somebody. He laughs and says he's not serious, but nobody's really sure if that's true.

He plays some obscure band's music in the background, and four complete strangers become subscribers merely because of that. His channel slowly builds up steam for his "comedic timing, take-no-shit attitude, and sincerity." He's a vlogger, full-fledged with cameras and a number of subscribers that has way too many digits.

He reaches his first million at seventeen, not long after his birthday, and people start telling him to interact with other youtube stars. (Does this imply he, too, is a youtube star? How neat.)

This is how he meets Devi. 

Devi draws him for one of her "Cheap Watercolor Challenge" speedpaintings, condensing a whole week of work into fifteen minutes and honestly, it's kind of amazing. Johnny mentions it in one of his videos, and they become friends instantly. They do shared art challenges together, coloring each others' line art and that just drives things higher for the two of them.

Meeting Edgar is an accident. Johnny sees one of Edgar's videos and is strangely intrigued. 

By genre, Edgar is an advice vlogger. A down-to-earth guy just trying to help people in the best way he can. Mixed in with religious blurbs, Edgar preaches positivity. He's always dreamed of being a therapist, and Johnny finds that kind of cute.

The friendship doesn't come easily. Johnny hassles Edgar playfully through video responses, making jokes about him in his own videos until Edgar finally notices him. 

Instead of throwing a playful insult back or attacking Johnny's concept, he messages Johnny independently and asks if he's doing okay. Says he sees mentions of wanting to die, wanting to hurt people, and he wants to help. 

This throws Johnny, and he doesn't post a video for a whole week because he's contemplating the concept of someone who is just so filled with good nature. How does someone function that way? Where do the bad feelings go?

Somehow, Johnny is different when he comes back to the camera, but he starts up as if nothing has changed. He doesn't answer questions, he doesn't address it. Instead, he starts talking to Edgar, gets Devi and her prankster girlfriend, Tenna, into a circle of awkward internet friendship.

* * *

 

Tenna met Devi through her channel, amazed by her artwork and her feisty feminist preachings. They're the perfect love story, meeting each other to film a video together, then never wanting to part. Devi makes masks and costumes for Tenna's more intricate pranks, and Tenna poses for lots of Devi's paintings. They share a shitty little apartment in a shitty little town in the middle of nowhere, USA. They're grossly into each other, and the internet absolutely eats it up.

Johnny tolerates it, because he's never seen a person make Devi that happy.

* * *

 

Edgar's subscribers leave comments on his videos, asking him what he's going to do about that Johnny asshole who's always heckling him. Neither of them make any kind of statement about it, being friends behind the scenes and pretending as though it doesn't exist on the screen. They can't think of a way to make it seem sincere, not just a formality, so they don't even bother. 

That is, until Edgar comes down to visit Johnny on a whim.

Devi has been running little meet ups between them for a while, but it's much easier for she and Johnny, living within the same state, just a few hours drive from each other. Edgar has to make an endeavor to fly in, leaving his lush apartment for the dingy place Johnny happily calls home.

There's a smell that Edgar can't particularly place, but it makes him nauseous if he sits in it for too long. In order to mask it, he buys Johnny endless candles, lighting them whenever he knows they'll be in the house.

During his visit, Edgar sets up his cameras in Johnny's bedroom, right next to where the other boy films his videos. The same background shows up in their videos, posted on the same day, and their fans coincide in a confusing mess.

Rumors crop up quickly, antagonized by all of the bullshit the two of them pull.

Edgar walks through the background of one of Johnny's videos in his pajamas, shirtless and messy. (He's leaving because Johnny is filming at four in the morning, but nobody has to know that.)

Johnny gets caught cooking in one of Edgar's q&a videos, answering deeply personal questions about Edgar. What's his favorite food? What's his favorite color? Does he wear socks to bed? No.

For one of his videos, Edgar wakes Johnny up around ten in the morning, throwing himself on top of the angrier boy and laughing mercilessly. It's one of the most sincere forms of laughter to ever grace Edgar's channel. 

Everything reaches a fever pitch when Edgar moves down, becoming a middle point between Johnny and Devi (and Tenna, of course). Subscriber counts skyrocket, four powerhouses becoming a singular movement.

Fans send in edits, caption things with the word squad, something that Edgar still doesn't fully understand.

* * *

 

Gaining Jimmy is like gaining a pet.

They're all in Edgar's apartment, filming a quiz video, answering questions about themselves and each other, laughing far too loudly and making too much noise.

The knocking on Edgar's door is so erratic and aggressive, everyone's first through is that the building may be on fire. Screaming on the other end is a voice breaking, angry and pathetic. All the treats are empty.

"I'm trying to  _fucking_ complete this  _fucking_ game, so can you  _bullshit_ assholes shut the  _fuck_ up?" this is Jimmy, before the door is even open. Rage quit extraordinaire. Champion of the broken console and the thrown controller. 

"Excuse me?" Johnny answers the door with a classic glare, cheeks still flushed and hair a mess, muscles still twitching, trying to complete the smile they had just been a part of.

"Oh— oh, my god." with Mountain Dew breath, Jimmy lets a scream die on his tongue, leaving him as a small, soft breath. "You— you're Johnny. Th-the. Johnny. I'm  _such_ a big fan!" Johnny cringes, but there's something endearing about the kid, looking up to Johnny with eyeliner rounded eyes. He explains how he started a channel himself because of Johnny, inspired by how easy it looked, how fun it looked. Now he runs his own gaming channel, strictly horror games (and maybe a few vlogs in there, too) of the scariest kinds.

Upon doing a little investigation, Edgar and Devi decide that Jimmy should be allowed into their little circle. 

"Five is a good number," Devi argues, hand on her hip in the middle of Edgar's kitchen. 

"He does something we don't," from the counter perch he's found, Edgar voices reason, "it could be fun to have someone like that around." 

"No, he's obnoxious. He's gross." 

Nobody listens to Johnny, and nobody is allowed to say "I told you so," when the boy starts to grow on him.

* * *

Eventually, Johnny gets popular enough to get away with live streams. People log in just to watch him talk and respond to them, eating chips or watching a movie in the background. It's a weird concept to him, but it doesn't cost anything and it's entertaining, so how bad can it be? 

Edgar stays at Johnny's house a lot of the time, padding around and doing little things, laundry, food, grocery trips. (This only goes on for a few weeks, before he just moves in.) 

One day, Johnny is streaming from his bedroom, sitting on his bed with his back to the doorway. He's talking about Edgar (when isn't he?) and answering questions, big shirt hanging off of his frail shoulders. 

"Hey, Nny!" Edgar comes into the room, freezing upon realizing the camera is on, and it sees him. "Devi wants to get dinner tonight, you up for it?"  

Whatever else comes of the conversation goes forgotten, the internet blows up with the nickname.

Kids come up with rumors, speculating that Edgar may be the only one allowed to call him that, speculating that it's a pet name, something intimate accidentally shared with a lucky few.

Rather than crushing everyone's dreams and telling them that Devi coined it, Johnny doesn't acknowledge it, just lets it run its course. People start using it more, and he eventually has to explain the spelling before people get into fights over it. He's not sure if he likes it being used or not, but he likes that people heard Edgar say it.

**Author's Note:**

> yeah jimmy is definitely michael from rage quit (volume warning):  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGlVtNXLMmA
> 
> nny is a lot like olan rogers but less joy more bitterness. the little digressions especially:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_GYnzZa2pc
> 
> oh boy. edgar. edgar is a joy. a peaceful lil joy. reminds me of amazingphil. he brings out a lot of dumb joy out of nny and it really hurts his rep. (he doesn't mind):  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rswFsrMIaR0
> 
> tenna would be a lot like thomas sanders. (yeah a viner but whatever its ok) just goodnatured fun with friends and funny jokes:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4ovmrEnEzk
> 
> devi would have art all the time, intermittent with vlogs, stuff like this:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONYGeot-b4s
> 
> they'd do those silly internet challenges together. this may or may not be in later chapters.


End file.
